Tag: Rev 12

To end our Revelation series – and to prepare for Christmas on the weekend – we’re going to be looking at everyone’s favourite Christmas-themed passage: Revelation chapter 12. (What could possibly go wrong?)

But this is a very different telling of the Christmas story from the ones we’re most familiar with. It’s not the one from the Gospel of Matthew, written from the perspective of a Jew who saw Jesus’ birth as the fulfilment of OT prophecy. Nor is it the one from Luke’s Gospel, from the perspective of a Gentile historian, who saw Jesus’ birth as part of God’s great plan of salvation for all of humanity.

In fact, it’s not really told from a human, earthly perspective at all. But a heavenly one. A spiritual one. A vision given to a guy called John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos, and written down in what we call the book of Revelation.

Yesterday, we began our Christmas week series through Revelation chapter 12. You need to start from yesterday, or this won’t make sense. To be honest, it might not make sense even if you do, but you want to give yourself the best chance…

So we’ve read Revelation 12 and identified the woman as “Mother Zion” – the true mother of the real saviour of the world (not Mother Rome and her emperor-son). But who are the other characters in this Christmas drama?

On Monday, we began our Christmas week series through Revelation chapter 12. You need to start from the beginning of the week, or this won’t make sense.

So far, we’ve read Revelation 12 and identified the woman as “Mother Zion” – the true mother of the real saviour of the world (not Mother Rome and her emperor-son). The dragon is Satan, who – just like in Greek and Roman mythology – wants to kill the saviour-god who is born. But he’s thwarted in his plans, and is defeated by the young hero when he comes of age.

On Monday, we began our Christmas week series through Revelation chapter 12. You need to start from the beginning of the week, or this won’t make sense.

The unhappy dragon

So far, we’ve seen the dragon (Satan) defeated in his attempts to kill the young hero born to a woman. What’s more, he’s been cast down from the skies. Defeated, yes, but not yet destroyed. And as you might expect, the dragon isn’t particularly happy about being cast down from the sky. In fact, the voice from heaven gives us a bit of a warning: